Sensory Enhancer
Students had to develop an apparatus in order to establish a relationship of enhancement and/or restriction of taste, smell, and auditory systems. An initial plaster cast was constructed of a specific classmate’s entire head. The cast was made using surgical grade plaster strips. The final cast was then used to provide detailed measurements and a template on which the apparatus could be constructed.
Two apparati were designed to be dependent on each other and respond to one another. Apparatus A restricted the senses of taste and smell, based on the principle that these two senses are interconnected and that what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell, and enhanced the auditory system by amplifying the perception of noises made in the mouth, and eliminating ambient noise. Apparatus B relied on the concept of inverting and delivering the experience of the partner’s apparatus on himself. Thus what the user did not smell, but ate, was channeled to the partner, as well as what he heard. The design was based on the concept of channeling the experience of one side to the other, generating an ambiguous perception of the senses.